Do Over

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Do Over is a television series created by Kenny Schwartz and Rick Wiener which was broadcast on the WB Television Network in 2002. It is often compared to the similarly themed show, That Was Then, which aired on ABC.

[edit] Synopsis

Joel Larsen, a 34 year old man, gets a second chance to get his life right, thanks to a freakish accident that catapults him back to 1981. He is electrocuted, then wakes up in his teenage body, but with all his adult memories intact. Blessed with adult wisdom, though hampered by adolescent urges, Joel sets out to right the wrongs that will befall his family.

Joel has many opportunities to use his knowledge of the future to his personal advantage. He attempts to invest in Intel stock, and palms off 1990's pop music hits as his own; he sings Green Day's Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) at school, and turns in Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit for a poetry assignment.

Do Over's premise invites intellectual speculation about what a man could accomplish if he had a chance to "do it all over again." Many an adult laments "if only I knew then what I know now." But the show focuses mostly on comedy. Pop culture references are thrown in frequently, and should be especially amusing for those who were in high school at the same time as the show's characters.

The plot of this programme was extremely similar to that of a story by internet adult story writer Al Steiner, first published in 1999, called Doing It All Over. Steiner's story was about a 32 year-old paramedic who goes to bed in 1999 and wakes up back in 1982 and then tries to change the destiny of his family and friends. No link has ever been demonstrated between the writers of the story and the subsequent TV programme, but the connections between the two - plotlines, character details, name - are reasonably strong.